Writer of Various Things

Car-Manna from Heaven

So the day after my last post, I was sitting in the graduate computer lounge looking at prices on Edmunds.com with a fellow student, when my friend Jay overheard us and said. “You need a car? I’ve got a car for you!” I turned, all ears, “Whatcha got?” “I will GIVE you…practically give you…a 1994 Geo Metro!” “What’s practically?” “One…hundred…dollars!” “What’s wrong with it?” “It needs a battery.” “That’s it?” “Yeah, well it has a few quirks…but it drives. Wanna come see it now?” “Let’s go!”

And so it is that I am the new proud owner of a little teal Geo Metro. There are a few quirks: The hatch back once opened is only self-supporting for 1.5 seconds. To forget this is to risk concussion. The front passenger side door is without handle on the inside, so the passenger must roll down the window to use the outer handle to let himself out. The rear passenger door is frozen shut for eternity, and to enter via the rear driver’s door you have to open the driver’s side door and reach back and around, because it only opens from the inside. There are also a few tricks involving the shifting mechanism that I won’t go into, but all in all, the car wears its idiosyncrasies well, and everyone who sees it is charmed by it’s cuteness: its bright cheery color, its twelve inch wheels. My friend Tony saw it and said, “It’s like a little toy car!”